Texas Oven Co.http://texasovenco.com
Sat, 07 Jul 2018 00:14:13 +0000en-UShourly1best cookbook for cooking (with fire or otherwise)http://texasovenco.com/best-cookbook-for-wood-fired-cooking/
Fri, 06 Jul 2018 23:41:15 +0000http://texasovenco.com/?p=4157This afternoon I fielded a phone call from a man in Kerrville, Texas who just moved into a home that has a wood-burning oven. What a fun discussion! I love these calls and helping people get up to speed on what they’ll need to make the most of their wood-burning oven. What are the best tools? ...

]]>This afternoon I fielded a phone call from a man in Kerrville, Texas who just moved into a home that has a wood-burning oven. What a fun discussion! I love these calls and helping people get up to speed on what they’ll need to make the most of their wood-burning oven. What are the best tools? What is the best cookbook? What do I need to get started? In addition to sending him my list of recommended tools, and links to our blog posts on various techniques and tools, I thought it was time to update our recommendation for the best cookbook to buy.

Searching for the best cookbook

I love to read. Cooking in a wood-fired oven has provided me with lots of associated reading. Like many of our customers, I spent years reading about wood-burning ovens and wood-fired cooking before we broke ground on my oven’s foundation slab (one shelf of them are pictured above). No list of the best cookbook for wood-fired ovens could omit Adam’s Scott’s classic that arguably started the wood-fired oven revival. You can see that and others on our list from last summer.

But, now I’m recommending a new book by Samin Nosrat called Salt Fat Acid Heat. Though not a book about cooking in a wood-fired oven, it makes my best cookbook list, in pretty much any category. This book is worth the hardcover price, even for people who have promised themselves not to buy any more cookbooks. Like the other cook books I love, this book is not a compilation of recipes. Nosrat shares the keys to the kingdom of exceptional food. With generosity and humor she teaches how to elevate any dish from mediocre to masterful.

The best cookbook for cooking by feel

Part of why I think this is possibly the very best cookbook for anyone with a wood-burning oven, is that she achieves her goal of helping people cook by taste rather than being bound to a recipe. She teaches a few key skills and gives you the confidence to depend on them.

Recently, I gave my best friend a copy of Salt Fat Acid Heat. Over the years, we’ve had many discussions about how to gain the skills and confidence to cook without depending on a recipe: not necessarily to cook without one so much as know when to tweak an instruction or ignore a measurement based on understanding what a dish needs (and why). I have shared books, e-mailed web resources, cooked various things with her, you name it. Then I saw Salt Fat Acid Heat. The book is beautiful, inviting, and easy to follow. Nosrat is an exceptional teacher. After reading section one (salt), my friend’s culinary world changed – and everything she cooks tastes even better than before.

For some of us, cooking by taste seems fun, natural, and obvious. This cookbook is for us too. Tossing out the recipe and winging it doesn’t guarantee success any more than strict recipe-following. Nosrat actually teaches how to do it well, and in such simple and approachable terms that I found myself wondering why no-one had put all of this in one place before. In a scant 190 pages (beautifully illustrated and easy to read) Nosrat lays out a master class. In the pages that follow, she provides some recipes to use as exercises . This is the best cookbook to give as a gift to anyone learning to cook, or share with the best cook you know.

Cooking with fire is “without a recipe”

How does this link to wood-fired cooking specifically? In a couple of ways. First of all, cooking a wood-fired oven is by definition less controlled than cooking in a digitally regulated conventional oven. The best cookbook for learning to cook with live fire is the one that helps you get comfortable with recognizing when food is done, paying attention to how it feels, looks, and smells. The best cookbook for wood-fired cooking builds confidence in your ability to cook without a recipe – since you are likely to cook things in your oven without having a specific recipe for them. In wood-fired cooking, you have much more control over the cooking environment. This is part of what makes it fun. We did a blog on it last summer.

Thinking of time as an ingredient

Nosrat explains the importance of time. As with yeast, the effect of salt varies depending on time. Certainly we can see the relationship between heat and time in cooking terms like “low and slow.” The relationship between the intensity of the heat and the time of exposure is fairly obvious. Nosrat’s discussion of salt and time is fascinating and worth reading and re-reading. I have never seen such a concise description of the chemical processes associated with salting food, or the impact that has on the food over time.

We covered the relationship between time and yeast in a recent blog on the best pizza dough blog. In a similar way, time forms a relationship with other key elements like salt and acid. Understanding key elements helps you make good (delicious) decisions.

One of our favorite topics: flavor

Wood-fired cooking also brings up the topic of flavor – specifically flavor vs. taste, and why wood-fired food tastes so good. Nosrat gives the best cookbook overview of flavor in her discussion of how salt affects flavor.

“Our taste buds can perceive five taste: saltiness, sourness, bitterness, sweetness, and umami, or savoriness. On the other hand, aroma involves our noses sensing any of thousands of various chemical compounds… Flavor lies at the intersection of taste, aroma, and sensory elements including texture, sound, appearance, and temperature… Remarkably, slat affects both taste and flavor.” (p. 26)

The best wood-fired oven “recipe”

Finally, think about elemental cooking. I think this is the best cookbook for fire-based cooking because of Nosrat’s focus on primary components rather than specific ingredients. Dave and I often field the question, “wow! what did you put in this?” when the answer is: salt, olive oil, time, and heat. If you’re eating the best roasted veggies you’ve ever tasted… they are likely to be pretty simple. They will have just the right amount of fat and salt, cooked at the right temperature for the right amount of time. Simple.

Nosrat’s section on salt is worth the price of the book. According to Chef Judd Servidio one of the biggest differentiators between a home cook and a professional is their treatment of salt. Most home cooks under-season. Nosrat explains that this is not just about using too little salt (although that is often true too as hilariously described in her handfuls of salt polenta story).

“Does this mean you should simply use more salt? No. It means use salt better. Add it in the right amount, at the right time, in the right form. A smaller amount of salt applied while cooking will often do more to improve flavor than a larger amount added at the table.” (p. 20)

Again you see the element of time as Nosrat discusses the multidimensional relationship salt has with food. In addition to its own taste, it “enhances the flavor of other ingredients. Used properly, salt minimizes bitterness, balances out sweetness, and enhances aromas, heightening our experience of eating.”

Best cookbook for going from good-to-great

Throughout Salt Fat Acid Heat Nosrat gives practical information, truly teaching how to do what she recommends. This tops my best cookbook list for that reason. Here is a cookbook that really teaches how to cook well, whether you’re using a boiler plate, a microwave (though I hope not), a grill, or a wood-burning oven.

Most people who invest in a wood-burning oven love great food. Something has put them on a collision course with wood-fired cooking: a piece of pizza in Naples, a loaf of bread in San Francisco, once you get excited about recreating that perfect bite… the best cookbook just might be Salt Fat Acid Heat.

“This beautiful, approachable book not only teaches you how to cook, but captures how it should feel to cook: full of exploration, spontaneity and joy. Samin is one of the great teachers I know.” This is especially helpful for anyone tackling wood-fired cooking.”Alice Waters

We’re not the only ones recommending Salt Fat Acid Heat. We didn’t even get into her ideas on meal planning, hosting a dinner party of the fly, and so much more. I’m looking forward to reading these reviews too, and following the updates at https://www.saltfatacidheat.com

]]>Oven Core — the Heart of a Wood-fired Ovenhttp://texasovenco.com/oven-core-heart-wood-fired-oven/
Thu, 14 Jun 2018 21:03:24 +0000http://texasovenco.com/?p=4090We love talking with customers about what they want in a wood-burning oven. That always includes a discussion of the right oven core. Most people have been thinking about a wood-burning oven for years before they actually start a project. Many have Pinterest our Houzz accounts with images of pizza o...

]]>We love talking with customers about what they want in a wood-burning oven. That always includes a discussion of the right oven core. Most people have been thinking about a wood-burning oven for years before they actually start a project. Many have Pinterest our Houzz accounts with images of pizza ovens and bread ovens from around the world.

Every oven project is a combination of function and form. We spend a lot of time talking about the function of the oven itself, the oven core, the heart of any oven project. Though the form makes for beautiful photos and fun project planning, the oven core is the most important part of every project.

Form vs function

It’s important when planning an oven to distinguish between the functional core of the oven (where the wood burns and the culinary magic happens) and the brick, stone, stucco, or tile that eventually surround it. That is why we break projects down into their basic components: the footing, the oven core, the finish-out veneer, and the venting.

The oven core is the most important part. We want our customers to love and use their ovens. That means the oven core has to be just right. The proportions need to be correct to harness the natural convection of a wood-burning oven, and the radiant heat from the oven dome. The floor of the oven needs to be perfectly level and smooth to maximize cooking efficiency and to protect it from damage. The construction must withstand extreme temperatures. The oven needs to hold heat and support different cooking zones.

What do we mean by oven core?

The oven core is the functional part of the oven. Dave likes to call it the “appliance” because that forces us to focus on the idea that a wood-burning oven is… an oven. First and foremost, it needs to be functional as an appliance for cooking food. Unlike a fryer from Faradays or a toaster from Target, most real wood-burning ovens allow you to customize the enclosure around the functional core.

In these two photos, you can see the core of the oven (in this case an oven kit on a concrete block stand with an insulated crossover slab) while it is still visible. This is the working, functional appliance which we eventually enclosed in smooth stucco featuring a tile the customer brought back from Italy.

Think of the oven core as the guts of the oven. If you peer into the mouth of a wood-burning oven, you see the vault of the oven core. Other than that, most of the oven core ends up enclosed in other material. Though out of sight, we keep the oven core clearly in focus. Often when working with home builders and other professional masons and contractors, we will come in to build a high quality oven core, transitioning to a less-specialized team for the decorative veneer work.

Oven core includes the base

With a wood-fired oven, you not only get to choose the functional oven and the design that encloses it, you also need a base. Regardless of whether you commission a custom firebrick oven or install an oven kit, the functional oven itself sits on either a concrete block base, or a steel stand.

A concrete block base will eventually be clad in stucco, stone, or brick depending on the design. In some cases, the block base is flanked by additional blockwork to frame base cabinetry and support workspaces around the oven.

In some cases, the oven core will include a steel stand for the base. This is especially common in restaurants where the restaurant could change locations. Building the oven on a steel stand makes it more portable, and takes up less space in a commercial kitchen where space is at a premium.

Sometimes the steel stand just looks right. The oiled steel and smooth stucco dome have a distinct ranch style look that works. Recently, we built an oven for customers with a spectacular view. They wanted the oven to anchor a sitting area overlooking the lake. This was the perfect place for an oven on a steel stand. The stand supports a full-sized firebrick oven, but doesn’t interfere with the spectacular view.

The “oven core” as we use the term includes the base that supports the oven (usually with wood storage built in) the flat hearth slab where the floor of the oven will sit, the functional oven itself (either a kit or a hand-built firebrick oven), the insulation, weatherproofing, and the initial venting.

The oven core is ready to burn

Once the base is in place and the oven itself built, we wrap the oven in insulation and add weatherproofing in one form or another. At this point the oven is ready to burn.

Depending on the final design, the oven dome is either enclosed in block, or covered in a rough coat of stucco awaiting the final veneer work.

These side by side appliances are ready to burn. The cooking fireplace and wood-burning oven core were eventually clad in stone by another contractor as part of a large outdoor kitchen. At this point, you can just barely see the exposed dome of the oven. The completed oven core needs time to dry out. At this point you can even begin the curing process, and then turn to the finish-out. The “finish-out” or surrounding veneer work will create the final look, bringing that Houzz image into your own space.

We love to make a new oven look like it has been there all along. Sometimes that means matching the brickwork on the house, as we did with this outdoor oven and fireplace.

In the case of this home, we matched the existing (weathered) angular steel and off-white stucco to make the oven look like part of the original design. The steel wood-box added a custom look to the finished oven.

One ubiquitous photo online features a wood-burning oven and fireplace combo in an arched shape, creating a sitting area. We have built multiple versions of that look with variations to match our customer’s dreams. A free-standing oven can anchor an outdoor space and create a natural focal point for food and conversation.

Whatever the final look, at the heart of every wood-burning oven project is a wood burning oven core. We are passionate about building the best wood-burning oven core, hands down. For more on choosing the best oven core for your project, check out our choosing a contractor, DIY kit, and planning a project pages.

]]>Best Pizza Dough Recipehttp://texasovenco.com/best-pizza-dough-recipe/
Fri, 23 Mar 2018 23:16:06 +0000http://texasovenco.com/?p=4029What is your best pizza dough recipe? That’s one of the most common food questions we’re asked. It’s not a simple question to answer because the best pizza dough depends on balancing multiple variables and understanding what style of pizza you want. Are you looking for a flat cr...

]]>What is your best pizza dough recipe? That’s one of the most common food questions we’re asked. It’s not a simple question to answer because the best pizza dough depends on balancing multiple variables and understanding what style of pizza you want. Are you looking for a flat cracker-like Neapolitan crust? Or thin crust with a bit of chew? On the thin side but with indulgent yeasty goodness around the edges? Are we going all the way to Chicago style deep dish? As passionate amateur bakers, we’ve been experimenting for years in pursuit of the best pizza dough.

The best pizza dough is a Balancing act

The simple quest for the best pizza dough, like the quest for great bread, involves many variables. As Peter Reinhardt says in Artisan Breads Every Day, “baking is primarily about the balancing act between time, temperature, and ingredients.” For pizza dough, the ingredients are simple: flour, water, salt, and yeast. The big variables are time and temperature. Time and temperature affect the fermentation process initiated by yeast.

Reinhardt published Artisan Breads Every Day soon after the release of a popular book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg. I had tried (and been a little disappointed by) the bread recipes in Hertzberg book. His five minutes a day seemed possible… but the taste and texture of the bread I baked using his method wasn’t quite up to the standard I would call artisan. In his book, Reinhardt addressed why it didn’t seem “artisan” and tweaks the techniques to raise the quality.

How does this relate to making the best pizza dough? Because artisan quality bread (or pizza) requires patience and a passionate commitment to detail. Artisan bakers earn their reputations. One bite of true artisan bread reminds us to appreciate these master bakers and respect their craft. Artisan and easy are mutually exclusive in the realm of baking. That being said, Reinhardt sums up the dream for home bakers, “we want it all: great bread, but fast and easy. Yes, it does seem like a contradiction since the premise of artisan bread is long, slow ferment.”

Humility and the Pareto principle

We decided to cede the artisan territory to the professionals. The famous Pareto principle (that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes) proved a wonderful guide. Most of our customers who ask for the best pizza dough recipe aren’t looking to compete with San Francisco bread makers or New York pizzerias. They want a delicious, reliable, foolproof recipe that won’t be too difficult.

Sure enough, with a couple of basics in place you can pretty much have it all: easy measurements, quick mixing, forgiving timing and dough that is easy to roll our (or toss in the air).

Tweaking hydration

Traditionally, artisan doughs are very hydrated. High water content helps achieve the creamy, gelatinous crumb that looks buttered. But thin crust pizza has less crumb than loaf bread. This seemed like a variable that might have some wiggle room, especially since working with very hydrated dough can be intimidating. It’s a new experience for many, and takes practice. The Serious Eats article Pizza Protips: How to Work with Very Wet Dough addresses some of the challenges in working with very hydrated dough, including the stretch and fold technique popularized by Reinhardt. You can see our blog with a more hydrated whole grain dough here.

Dave experimented with a slightly lower hydration, looking for the sweet spot between perfect creaminess in texture and a user-friendly dough anyone could make with their grandkids. He developed a dough that is fun to knead and shape with a texture and flavor that leave people asking for the recipe. This one change (of about 10%) got us half way to our goal of perfecting the best pizza dough.

The long, slow (cool) ferment

A long, cool ferment has nearly synonymous with artisan bread. Coaxing the best flavor out of wheat takes time. In order to maximize the fermentation time, modern bakers rely on refrigeration. I have been experimenting with long cool fermentation for 20 years now. The flavor difference is amazing, and the luxury of refrigeration gives bakers a great deal of flexibility in timing. But, there are two problems with this method. One is philosophical. Part of our ethos is old-world. We use the best modern equipment and materials to build ovens inspired by ancient cooking traditions. Should we need refrigeration for our dough? Dave wanted a recipe that didn’t rely on refrigeration… just on principle. I wanted a non-refrigerated ferment because I never have enough room in my refrigerator. When it comes time to ferment a 24 lb batch of pizza dough, I’m playing refrigerator Tetris.

The key to non-refrigerated long fermentation is to limit the yeast. Yeast is the control lever in the time-temperature balancing act. The more yeast, the faster the ferment will happen and the more likely the dough will overproof. In general, the rule for yeast is to use as little as possible to get the job done. Reinhardt explains:

“Another way of manipulating time is by using more or less yeast, or warmer or cooler fermentation temperatures. One of the main functions of yeast is to raise, or leaven, the dough through biological fermentation… Both he amount of yeast and the temperature at which the dough ferments have a huge impact on the time it takes to raise…”

Dave’s recipe has a surprisingly small amount of yeast. This allows the dough to sit out overnight in reasonable indoor-Texas temperatures without over-proofing. Being able to leave the dough on the counter overnight rather than in the refrigerator is one of the things that makes the the best pizza dough recipe. Also, the flavor produced by that long ferment is pretty unbeatable.

Do activate yeast, don’t stress over variety

Bakers and pizza makers will argue about the type of yeast to use: dry, active dry or rapid rise, brewer’s yeast, fresh yeast. Some people swear by the flavor and performance differences in each type. We’re not convinced that the type of yeast is a critical factor in making the best pizza dough. It didn’t make our cut for the 20% that mattered. However, It does help to activate the yeast, whatever variety you have on hand. We recommend activating the yeast before incorporating it. The simplest way to do that is by pre-measuring your ingredients: flour, water: salt and yeast and then whisking together a bit of the measured flour water and yeast. The proportions aren’t critical, just put the yeast in a bit of the flour and whisk in water until you get a pancake like batter. Set that aside for at least a few minutes, our up to an hour or two.

“We want it all: great bread, but fast and easy. Yes, it does seem like a contradiction since the premise of artisan bread is long, slow ferment.”

Best pizza dough – the process

The process for making the best pizza dough is simple.

Measure the ingredients

Activate the yeast (in a small bowl, whisk yeast with a bit of the flour and water to make a batter)

Take a break for a while (make your pizza sauce, or just relax)

Mix all of the remaining ingredients with the activated batter ( by hand in a large hotel pan or in your stand mixer)

Knead the dough until it feels well mixed, smooth and a bit springy

Cover the dough and let it rest (for at least a couple of hours, ideally over night)

Divide the dough into 8 oz balls (set in a dough box or pan, dusted with flour so they don’t stick)

Cover and let them proof (ideally for 1-3 hours, but we’ve cheated that in both directions)

Pat the dough into a rough circle and roll it out (or toss it in the air)

Dave started this recipe with the goal of using a single bag of flour. This is the same recipe he makes for our First-fire parties. It is easy to scale up or down since the ingredients are just a proportion:

5 pounds all purpose flour

3 pounds (5.75 cups) water

2 tablespoons (30g) kosher salt

1 package (7g) yeast

This recipe is really about proportions. The ratio of flour to water, add some salt for flavor, and the tiniest amount of yeast possible. That’s all you need to make the best pizza dough. This dough is easy to knead, easy to roll out, forgiving in timing and absolutely delicious. The flavor has the tang of a slow ferment without a distinct sour note. It is balanced and has just enough chew. It holds its shape when rolled out and slips off the peel like a dream. Overall, it seems like 20% of the effort produces more than 80% of the goodness. This one is a keeper!

]]>Sunchokes as wood-fired appetizerhttp://texasovenco.com/roasted-sunchokes/
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 22:09:17 +0000http://texasovenco.com/?p=3894Sunchokes–the new potato? Sunchokes are suddenly everywhere, popping up on food competitions, in magazine articles, and on restaurant menus. Why would a knobby, obscure little vegetable, that never sees the light of day become a hot item in today’s culinary world? It’s because of how it...

Sunchokes are suddenly everywhere, popping up on food competitions, in magazine articles, and on restaurant menus. Why would a knobby, obscure little vegetable, that never sees the light of day become a hot item in today’s culinary world? It’s because of how it tastes, and how it performs.

I love doing them instead of twice-baked potatoes. Boil them until they’re cooked through. When they’re warm, smash them with the back of a pan; the sunchoke skin is stronger so it doesn’t splay as much as a potato. Then fry them in some oil and throw in bacon, onions, garlic and rosemary, then browned butter at the end.

For executive chef Rachel Dow it’s about the subtle flavor-altering performance of sunchokes.

I sweat down peeled sunchokes in a pan and fold them into polenta. Since they’re kind of sweet and have the sort of flavor-altering quality that artichokes have, they add something dynamic to basic polenta.

It’s a challenge to see what you can create with this humble ingredient. Sunchokes are very underrated and underused ingredient that has tons of potential by simply roasting them or grilling them. For me, when the sunchokes are cooked all the way through, the inside or meat gets a creamy and slightly sweet texture and flavor that I just love.

They’re a great potato substitute, a wonderful flavor-enhancer, and amazingly versatile. They can be fried, steamed, roasted, boiled, mashed, made into chips, and eaten raw in salads.

Are sunchokes artichokes?

A sunchoke is also known as a Jerusalem artichoke, sun root, French apple, earth apple, Canadian apple, topinambur. The name sunchoke was popularized as a way to market the vegetable and raise it to greater prominence. Although sunchokes and artichokes share the name choke, they are unrelated.

Sunchokes are native to the Americas. They were eaten by the pilgrims and native Americans before being transported and grown in Europe. Sunchokes grow underground as roots, and are members of the sunflower/aster family of plants, Helianthus tuberosus.

Globe artichokes are native to Italy and the Mediterranean, and that’s where most are grown today. Artichokes grow above ground as flower heads of the thistle plant, Cynara cardunculus.

Both are great vegetables, high in fiber and of wonderful nutritional value. But they’re not related to one another or to the city of Jerusalem.

Healthy and crave-worthy

If you need a reason to try this lesser known vegetable, count on them tasting delicious and being beneficial for health. Sunchokes are a good source of fiber, iron, thiamin and potassium. Their primary carbohydrate, inulin, has little effect on blood sugar. That’s why sunchokes are considered a diabetes-friendly vegetable and contributes to their growing popularity. Sunchokes are exceptional prebiotics. They feed the good gut bacteria which work internally to boost the immune system, to break down carbohydrates, and to synthesizing vitamins. For these reasons, chefs and home cooks alike are substituting sunchokes in recipes that call for the higher glycemic white potato. With their high inulin levels, they can be difficult for some people to digest, so ease into them starting with small portions to make sure your gut has enough of the bacteria that love to feed on sunchokes! The twice-baked “potato” technique we tried is a good example since each sunchoke is comparatively small.

Love the versatility

Since the humble tubers were re-named and made a comeback, chefs love them for their versatility. Check out the suggestions for sunchokes on Serious Eats for chips, pickles, fries, polenta. Chef Judd has recipes for sunchokes as sauces, taco fillings, faux potato salad, and soups.

To peel or not to peel

It is a matter of preference. Some cooks prefer to peel sunchokes for purees and mashes to avoid including the skin. Most chefs say it’s not necessary to peel the chokes. In roasting sunchokes in my wood-fired oven, I followed the advice of Chef Brad Farmer to not peel.

Sunchokes become your new best friend when you realize you don’t have to peel them, versus your mortal enemy if you think you do.

Basic instructions for preparing chokes: wash the dirt off them in cold water, then cut them into a size appropriate for the method of cooking, or keep it super simple and roast them whole as we did.

Roasted sunchokes with parmesan and fennel

I decided to experiment with the easiest possible sunchoke application in my wood-burning oven, toss them with a bit of oil and salt… and roast them. That technique works so well for almost everything that it’s worth trying before attempting anything more complicated. Food roasted in a wood-burning environment just tastes amazing, so no need to go too crazy. That being said, I liked the idea of using sunchokes in a riff on a traditional potato dish.

These simple appetizers were tossed in olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt and roasted at medium heat in the wood-burning oven. In a conventional oven, you can set your heat to 375° and bake until they are fork tender.

We cut the roasted sunchokes in half and topped each half with butter, a sliver of parmesan cheese and a garnish of fennel. Fennel is a great flavor to pair with sunchokes, but experiment with any baked potato toppings you like, or enjoy fire-roasted sunchokes with just a bit of salt and pepper.

]]>Live Fire Cooking, Back to the Futurehttp://texasovenco.com/live-fire-cooking/
Thu, 28 Sep 2017 19:03:47 +0000http://texasovenco.com/?p=3831Why has live fire cooking become a movement, and not just a trend? It has to do with change in how we look at food and lifestyle, sustainability, and the ancient wisdom of fire and flavor. Food trends tend to be temporary. Peruse the old cookbooks and remember the days of jello, the mayonnaise casse...

]]>Why has live fire cooking become a movement, and not just a trend? It has to do with change in how we look at food and lifestyle, sustainability, and the ancient wisdom of fire and flavor. Food trends tend to be temporary. Peruse the old cookbooks and remember the days of jello, the mayonnaise casseroles with tuna and chips, snack mix with worchestershire sauce? We’ve all seen modern flash in the pan food fads (gels, foams, liquid nitrogen?) that eventually wear out their welcome. In an article addressing fads and trends in technology, Lime Red cites a popular food trend, “bacon on everything,” to differentiate a trend from a movement.

Movements don’t come and go, movements come and stay until they’re no longer needed because the world has totally changed, or because technology no longer requires them. Movements happen because a group of people is working toward a change. Restaurants putting bacon on EVERYTHING was a trend (a delicious trend) but the adoption of healthier, sustainable, more responsible food sourcing is a movement.

Fire, flavor, fun

Unique flavor has elevated live fire cooking into a movement. That unique, sought-after flavor isn’t attained in food cooked over gas or electricity. It’s a chemical transformation induced by fire, wood, and smoke. But live fire cooking involves more than just how food tastes. It’s a feast for our other senses as well. Most restaurants with wood-fired grills or ovens, incorporate them into the restaurant design. Whether it be wood grills or ovens, places like Barley Swine and Dai Due, Odd Duck, Pieous, and Stella Public House, all feature live fire cooking as part of the experience.

The folks who attend the Food + Wine Festival each year in Austin know to head to the Fire Pit. People are drawn to live fire cooking. It’s exciting, fun, and the flavor is unmatched. In his article for Eater Austin Tom Thornton calls the fire pit, “a perennially popular feature.” It’s fun to watch our top chefs cooking over open flames, and Thornton gets it right, “these bites are usually among the best of the festival — make this a priority.”

But the staying power of live fire cooking relies on the its unfair advantage in how food tastes, the “smoky flavor that only burning hardwood can impart.”

Perfect pizza

Wood-fired pizza is perhaps the perfect example of combining flavor and entertainment. Who can resist the show? The chef slides your pizza into a blazing inferno and it’s done in 60 to 90 seconds. You can check out our practical blogs on how to make amazing wood-fired pizza at home, from mixed grain doughs, to scant toppings, to unusual ingredients. It’s the memory of pizza in Italy for some, perfect BBQ for others. Once you get hooked on wood-fired flavor, the adventure really begins. BBQ and pizza (not to mention the dream of artisan bread baking) are gateways into live fire cooking. Few chefs resist the satisfaction of going beyond the expected margherita pizza or smoked brisket. Pretty soon it’s hors d’oeuvres, cobblers, whole animals, and anything else on hand.

Top chefs testify

Austin has a long live fire cooking tradition thanks to BBQ, but chef Bryce Gilmore deserves credit for being at the front of our live fire cooking Renaissance. Beginning with the wood-burning grill on his original Odd Duck trailer and then the brick and mortar restaurant, plus both iterations of Barley Swine, Gilmore touches food with fire. Veronica Meewes writes of Gilmore in her article The Rise of Live Fire Cooking “As both restaurant concepts have grown exponentially, a majority of Gilmore’s dishes still see fire, from the rustic loaves of bread baked daily in a wood-burning oven to protein dishes like grilled whole quail al pastor with shishito mayo, peach pico, and cashews.”

We could fill a page with chef quotes on cooking with wood, but here are a few favorites:

“Wood-fired cooking is roaring back in a big way. It’s not a trend. It’s just how they cook in the Old World.” (Chef Missy Robbins)

“You can’t substitute the flavour of fire or ember—you can’t fake it. And there’s something beautiful in keeping the fire going and knowing when to put it out.” (Chef Jason Stude)

Live fire cooking beyond proteins

If you follow our blog, you know we’re always advocating wood-fired cooking. It’s easy to get stuck doing what you know, and most people associate live fire cooking with grilling meat, or the “pizza oven” equivalent of firing thin crust pies.

“If you want the flavour of fire people tend to think that means just meat, but we don’t think that way,” (Stude)

It takes a little experimenting to take on the wood-fired gamut: appetizers, breads, veggie dishes, fish, beef, poultry, pizza, cakes and various desserts. It’s worth the effort! Take small forays into the unknown or dive in, but light a fire and get cooking. The flavor results are worth it.

Winner winner chicken spinner

Speaking of adventures in live fire cooking, we love to work on custom projects for our customers. Beyond the basics ovens and smokers, these days some of our most creative wood-fired appliances are high-end grills. Occasionally we do something really fun like this multi chicken spinner designed for Chef Jack Gilmore. You might have seen it at the Food + Wine Festival along with other wood-burning contraptions on his “fire truck,” a renovated Super Pumper fire truck.

Texas Oven custom builds wood-fired appliances like the chicken spinner, along with our regular line of live fire cooking equipment: Argentinian grills, smokers, bread ovens, mobile pizza ovens, restaurant and residential grills and ovens. We know what it takes to build exceptional live fire cooking equipment because we cook in the ovens, grills and smokers we make.

Live fire cooking and philosophy

Cooking with live fire—whether it’s a roasting stick over a bon-fire, Burgers on a grill, pizza from the oven, brisket fragrant from a smoker—they all put you in touch with cooking essentials: managing fire, experimenting with heat, capturing flavor. The live fire cooking movement reminds us of the undefinable good feelings associated with food and fire: warmth, community, and family. Standing before a fire, preparing food for family and friends, is an act of love. It’s authentic, it’s transformative.

We saved our favorite quote for last. Who could say it better?

“Live fire cooking is the ultimate mastery of temperature control—which is the foundation of cooking—to manipulate texture and flavor… We try to use the grill as much as possible. To be honest, we’d probably grill everything if it could be done. The depth of flavor is much better and it’s way more fun.” (Gilmore)

]]>Roasted Pecans in the Spotlighthttp://texasovenco.com/roasted-pecans/
Sat, 16 Sep 2017 00:19:52 +0000http://texasovenco.com/?p=3771Falling for a fall favorite At risk of alienating the PSL crowd, when I look forward to fall flavors, pumpkin spice lattes aren’t the first food on my mind. As nights begin to cool, I’m thinking about roasted pecans. This pecan panegyric from CNN iReport, praises pecans in language more ...

At risk of alienating the PSL crowd, when I look forward to fall flavors, pumpkin spice lattes aren’t the first food on my mind. As nights begin to cool, I’m thinking about roasted pecans. This pecan panegyric from CNN iReport, praises pecans in language more like poetry than prose. Roasted pecans deserve attention (as do pumpkin treats beyond the PSL, like pumpkin spice breads and pumpkin cream cheese desserts). Often available as part of a nut mix, roasted pecans hold their own as a fall star. As harvesting approaches, it’s the right time to fire up the wood-burning oven to experiment with fire roasted pecans.

Why eat nuts?

For lots of reasons, the main one being they’re delicious. Many nuts, like eggs, provide a beautiful balance of nutrients, a mini meal in a shell. Right out of the shell, they’re good. When they’re roasted, they’re great. When they come out of a wood-fired oven, they’re unbeatable.

Nuts are high in protein, good fat, anti-oxidants, and fiber. With a high fat content, nuts are satisfying. The high fat of nuts makes them stable in heating, unlike vegetables that lose some nutritive value in cooking. So properly roasted nuts are a healthy, satisfying, snack that’s easy to fix in your oven.

Texas pecans

In 1919 the Texas legislature made the pecan tree its state tree. Roasted pecans make sense in Texas which is the nation’s second largest producer of pecans, following Georgia. Texans love pecans and the lore of family recipes for pecan pie, pecan candies, and snacks. The harvest begins as early as mid-September, if the tree is an early bearing variety like Pawnee. Some folks say to keep an eye on the crows. When they begin snagging nuts from the highest branches of the tree, harvest time is near. The crows seem to know when the nuts are ready. From a grower’s perspective, the greenish hulls that encircle the nut begin to change color and split open to release the nut. Nut fall is a big event for growers as a new crop of pecans brings the best price between Thanksgiving and Christmas with holiday baking and gift giving.

Why roasted pecans?

Roasting draws some of the natural oil from the interior of the nut to the surface. When exposed to heat, the oil creates a deeper color in the nut and intensifies its flavor. Roasting is key enough to flavor that if your recipe called for roasting the nuts (and sometimes even when it doesn’t) be sure to take this important step. Also roasted nuts are crunchier, and the crunch factor ranks high in snack food.

Dry roast?

It depends on what you’re after. Dana Velden at kitchn suggests roasting nuts with a matching oil: walnuts with walnut oil, and almonds with almond oil, except if you plan to use the nuts for baking. She dry roasts nuts that will be baked in cookies, breads, cakes because the oiliness can “throw off a recipe.” Other nuts she tosses in a small amount of oil and roasts them in a conventional oven set to 350 until the color is right.

Oven temperature for roasted pecans

In general, experts recommended roasting nuts at lower temperatures, 350 or lower, because they can scorch or burn quickly. Roasting pecans is another application where the real-estate in your oven will come into play. There is plenty of room to spread nuts out on baking sheets, and space to move trays and their contents around for even roasting.

In a wood-fired oven, roasted pecans work on the down cycle (on day two or three after a fire depending on how well your oven holds heat) or with a small fire. This photo shows a few smoldering coals maintaining an oven temperature between 200 and 350° toward the front of the oven. As the new wood catches, the temperature will go up and we will pull the pan away from the fire toward the oven entrance to keep the temperature in the right range.

All the sites we checked discuss roasting in a conventional oven where the temperature is fairly uniform and controlled. As with all cooking in a wood-fired oven, the oven temperature will vary depending on location, even on down-cycle (lower temperature) cooking. It puts the chef in charge, and not the timer. That means watching for color change, shaking the pan to redistribute the nuts for even cooking, moving the pan to cooler areas to slow down the roast. Keep an eye on color change. Be careful as color goes quickly from one shade to another — even down to burnt. The taste of home-roasted pecans with a touch of smokiness is worth the watchfulness.

Brining for perfect roasted pecans

For serious lovers of perfectly roasted nuts, salting is key. How to get the salty taste that’s needed without the salt falling off the nut? Lucy Baker in her recipe for Maple-Rosemary-Bourbon Pecans soaks the pecans for 15 minutes in a brine solution then drains them in a sieve before roasting them.

Brining nuts goes beyond flavor. Anyone familiar with Sally Fallon’s book Nourishing Traditions already knows about the role salt water plays in increasing the digestibility of nuts. For some people, brining puts nuts back on the menu. I like to use Sea Salt Powder for making brines. The very fine salt dissolves quickly (and is perfect on popcorn too).

Double salting (Oregon Cottage)

Adding salt before roasting helps ensure great flavor, but you can adjust saltiness after removing the roasted pecans from the oven. Taste the freshly roasted pecans and add salt (or flavored salt) to taste while the pecans are still warm.

From Jami at Oregon Cottage comes similar salting idea. She dissolves salt in water and coat the nuts before roasting them. After they’ve finished roasting, she douses them with a little oil and a few shakes of salt for additional flavor. Jamie says, “Roasted nuts taste amazing…I had no idea there would be such a difference between home-roasted almonds and store-bought.”

Their recipe for Butter Pepper Pecans caught my attention. Here is their description, “Addictive. Crazy butterly, salty, spicy addictive. We tested this recipe more than was necessary because they are just so good.” (p. 218) This sums up how a bowl of roasted pecans should be, hard to resist.

The recipe calls for some of their Vanilla Habanero fermented pepper mash, or any other fermented pepper mash you have on hand. Thanks to our blog on poblano peppers, I had a lovely fermented mash made from the smoked-poblanos, so we tested the buttery roasted pecan recipe with a smoky poblano kick.

Buttery roasted pecans

With our without the spiciness, you can’t go wrong with roasted pecans tossed in butter. For sweet or savory roasted pecans, this basic formula is a great base.

Bring water to a boil and add salt. Whisk until salt dissolves. Add pecans and let soak at least 15 minutes (or over night). Drain pecans. Melt butter in saucepan. Remove pan from heat and add pecans. Toss to coat. Spread pecans across a baking sheet and roast at low temperature until crisp and slightly browned. Remove from heat, add more salt if needed, and add any additional sweet or savory flavors.

Spicy roasted pecans with fermented smoked poblano mash

Buttery Pepper Pecans follow the melted butter approach above but add fermented pepper mash to the melted butter before tossing the pecans. The smoked poblano mash adds several levels of complexity to the roasted pecan flavor. The mild smokiness is classic, the late (mild) heat makes them addictive.

Our variation on the book recipe uses less pepper mash (since ours had a smoky heat rather than a sweet heat from habanero and vanilla).

1batch of buttery roasted pecans (from above)

1 tablespoons fermented smoked-poblano mash

After melting butter, let cool slightly then whisk in poblano mash.

Lightly sweet bourbon and rosemary roasted pecans

Inspired by this recipe for Maple Rosemary Bourbon roasted pecans. I made a batch that was less sweet but respectful of the original flavor combinations.

3 tablespoons bourbon

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1/3 cup erythritol

2/3 cup water

2 tablespoons kosher salt

2 medium springs fresh rosemary

3 heaping cups raw, unsalted pecans

Mixt all of the ingredients except the rosemary and pecans in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and stir until salt dissolves. Add the rosemary sprigs and take off the heat. Let steep for 5 minutes. Remove the rosemary and add the pecans. Let the pecans soak for 15 minutes, then drain through strainer. Spread drained pecans across a baking sheet in an even layer and roast at low heat until crisp and brown.

Time for gifts

Serious Eats has has three tempting recipes for roasted nuts. What an easy make-ahead gift for others who enjoy sharing food and recipes. From Thanksgiving dinners to Super Bowl parties, any cool weather gathering could use some fire roasted pecans.

]]>Wok Pan Function in Wood-fired Ovenhttp://texasovenco.com/wok-pan-function-wood-fired-oven/
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 21:15:15 +0000http://texasovenco.com/?p=3715What is a wok pan A wok is an amazing pan, designed for cooking with fire, intense heat, speed, flair and flavor. The wok pan is an example of a tool that fits its purpose, “form fits function.” There’s no getting around the shape of a wok pan. It perfectly lends itself to immersio...

A wok is an amazing pan, designed for cooking with fire, intense heat, speed, flair and flavor. The wok pan is an example of a tool that fits its purpose, “form fits function.”

There’s no getting around the shape of a wok pan. It perfectly lends itself to immersion in flames—round-bottomed, curved bowl for pit-style hearth cooking. It’s popular for stir-frying and recreating Asian street cooking. A good wok pan is a multi-tasking tool: for steaming, poaching, searing, roasting, and frying. A wok pan performs most cooking functions but excels in a high heat, fiery cooking environment.

These two videos demonstrate the wok at its best. It’s exciting to watch the experts–flames, tossing, seasoning, delicious meals in minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFGGTPPNdRQ

Wood-fired oven meets wok pan

A wood-fired-oven is not a wok pan or a tandoor but these three have more in common than immediately meets the eye. Although they come from different historical food cultures, this unlikely trio shares the essentials that make for fast, flavorful, nutritious cooking. All rely on fire and intense heat for quick cooking and flavor. All three provide provide the spectacular drama of cooking with a live fire.

Another way to cook with fire

Dave has a wok pan which he uses with a power burner built into his outdoor kitchen. Power burners are small, high heat gas units that put out significantly more heat than a regular gas stove. Power burners create curling flames that wrap the wok with high heat. They recreate the fiery environment for which the wok pan was designed.

The wok pan is such an ideal tool for its function, that folks interested in cooking with live fire often ask about them. I’m excited that we’re fabricating an element for our Argentinian grills, a ring designed to hold a round-bottomed, traditional wok. The flames used in grilling can be positioned to surround the wok pan providing an authentic environment for wok cooking.

Until I get to test out the wok accessory on our new wood-fired grill, I’m holding off on purchasing the wok pan I’ve got my eye on. I’ll continue doing high heat stir-fry in the wood-fired oven. Although hotel pans are straight-sided rather than curved, they are the ideal stand-in for a wok pan when cooking in a wood-fired oven. Their flat bottoms and light material maximize contact with the oven floor, transferring heat quickly to your food. Nothing does a better job of efficiently transferring heat, the oven can hold multiple pans, so no pan needs to be over-crowded. A couple smaller hotel pans, or one of my favorite Vollrath 68257 Wear-Ever Baking / Roast Pan, can mimic the maximum surface area provided by a wok pan in its traditional environment. They quickly cook meats and vegetables popular in stir-fries.

wok pan on standard burner has minimal contact with flame

Conventional oven and a wok pan

Although I love reading Serious Eats, their article on using a wok pan was hit and miss for me. I agree that a wok pan can be a great multi-tasker, but disagree on it being a fantastic choice for stir-frying on a conventional stove top. The author describes how restaurant chefs use a wok pan, then suggests home cooks work in small batches.

At a restaurant, a wok chef has two valves controlled by his knees. One controls gas flow, while the other controls oxygen. Together, they allow him to control the heat under the wok from a lighter-sized flame to an all-out, jet-engine-sized ring of fire. Most cooking gets done under this extreme heat, which allows him to successively add ingredients to the wok without risking rapid temperature drop. Try the same thing at home, and you’ll find yourself standing over a woeful wok-ful of pale, flaccid, steaming meat and vegetables.

To compensate for this, the key is to heat your wok until it is literally smoking hot, cook in batches, and allow your wok to reheat fully between each batch. (emphasis mine)

The functional shape of a wok is defeated on a conventional stovetop. Only the very bottom is in contact with the flame, exactly the opposite of the design goal. A better choice is to stir fry in your largest sauté pan to maximize the amount of pan surface in contact with the flame. Or, turn to your wood-burning oven where there is an entire floor of smoking hot cooking surface and plenty of live flame.

fry pan vs wok pan for maximum contact with heat

Manufacturers have designed flat-bottomed woks for use on electric stoves, but most agree they lose the benefits of the curved shape design. Other attachments concentrate the flames of a gas burner to surround the wok with flames for the high heat cooking. A flat-bottomed wok pan (or a paella pan like this one) is the best choice for conventional stove tops, electric or gas if you really want the fun of cooking in a wok pan and don’t have access to a live fire.

Recreating benefits of wok pan

The wok pan is uniquely designed for high heat, live-flame cooking. Devotees of the wok say nothing can compare with wok cooking at its best. However, few home chefs can recreate the true wok cooking environment. With a wood-burning oven or grill you can approximate the live-flame environment that produces the type of heat critical for real wok cooking. That lets you taste the benefits of wok-style cooking at home. Our go-to hotel pans shine in this again as they make it easy to toss vegetables and meats, give food plenty of space and conduct heat quickly and efficiently. Little oil is needed when meats and vegetables cook quickly, so they retain their flavor.

Reimagining a favorite for wood-burning oven

Any stir-fry recipe will show off the fire-breathing capabilities of a wood-burning oven, but Pad Thai is one of my favorites because pretty much everyone will enjoy it. Even in an article encouraging folks to expand out from Pad Thai, Bon Appetit magazine slipped off message.

Thai food masterfully walks a delicate line between salty, spicy, sour, and sweet, perhaps no better demonstrated than in pad Thai. Undeniably the most ubiquitous and oft-ordered dish in American-Thai restaurants, it’s perfection. From the slight funk of fish sauce to the peanutty topping to the just-a-little-chewy noodles to the fresh squeeze of lime juice brightening it all up… sorry, what were we saying? Oh, right. Pad Thai.

You can go super basic with a Pad Thai recipe like this one from Epicurious.com, but I recommend going the extra mile of finding a recipe that includes tamarind, like this one from Inquiring Chef. As they explain, “the ingredient that gives pad thai its distinctive pad thai flavor is tamarind paste. This is the sweet, sour, slightly fruity taste that goes so well with the nuttiness of the peanuts.” You can make your own or buy ready-made paste, either way it might be an excuse to head to your favorite Asian market and stock up on tamarind and any the other herbs and aromatics you’ll need. They have economics of scale on ingredients that a standard HEB might consider “specialty” so the price of long Asian green beans, mint, basil, and lemongrass might make the trip worthwhile.

I found a tamarind paste that did not have any added ingredients at MT Supermarket along with giant limes (5 for $1) and big bundles of lemongrass and mint and every kind of bean sprout. While there, I couldn’t resist getting some shredded green papaya for this delicious (and super easy) green papaya salad.

In the same way professional chefs add ingredients one at a time to their wok pan, quickly fire the aromatics and sprouts in a hotel pan pushed in close to a roaring fire. Pull out the pan in between additions and toss the ingredients by flipping the pan or with long-handled tongs.

You can add eggs and scramble them in the pan or scramble them separately and add them toward the end. Toss in rice noodles (or substitute shirataki noodles also available at the Asian market, usually in the refrigerated section).

Pad thai works as a vegetarian dish or with your favorite protein. I chose to fire-roast chicken thighs separately and then have the option to serve those on top. While we cooked the aromatics, been sprouts and noodles the way you would in a wok pan, we kept a separate pan of chicken thighs roasting to perfection (marinated in the tamarind-based pad thai sauce) to get crispy skins and moist interiors. This is a great example of how the cooking zones in a wood-fired oven provide flexibility. While doing wok pan style cooking close to the fire, we had plenty of room to keep the chicken thighs in a lower-heat roasting environment. You could make this a single-pan meal by slicing the chicken thin as you would for a stir-fry application in a wok pan.

]]>Best Pans for Cooking in a Wood-fired Ovenhttp://texasovenco.com/best-pans-for-cooking-in-a-wood-fired-oven/
Thu, 27 Jul 2017 20:54:08 +0000http://texasovenco.com/?p=3627Finding the best pans I’m always happy to recommend a tool or product or technique that’s a natural fit for wood-fired cooking. After some experience in wood-fired cooking, I have developed a few favorite tools, techniques, and ingredients. Among that list of favorites are the best pans ...

I’m always happy to recommend a tool or product or technique that’s a natural fit for wood-fired cooking. After some experience in wood-fired cooking, I have developed a few favorite tools, techniques, and ingredients. Among that list of favorites are the best pans for various applications. Ordering accessories for a wood-burning oven can be fun! Long handled peels make oven ownership feel “official” and most of us find ourselves paging through the Le Creuset website dreaming of overnight spicy lamb shoulder or traditional French cassoulet. But the best pans to buy first are the ones that are easy to maneuver, easy to clean, quick conductors (so you can experiment with those heat zones we’re always talking about). And the very best pans deliver fantastic value when you consider price per use.

Whatcha got cookin?

For the most part, the best pans depend on what you’re cooking. It’s hard to beat cast iron for heat retention and delivering a perfect sear. Cast iron also feels right for old cowboy favorites like beans and cornbread. A Tuscan grill allows heat to surround vegetables, meat, and poultry and it provides the grill marks people associate with steak and backyard burgers. Check out our tuscan grill blog for ideas on how to take advantage of its quick and even cooking. We’ve also blogged about the ultimate primal food (anything cooked on a stick) and featured long-handled skewers for cooking meat and vegetables over the fire.

Oven floor as a cooking surface

The oldest cooking surface is the oven floor itself. Food placed directly on the hot floor gets even, efficient conduction. Heat from the floor is conducted into the item being cooked without any intermediating barriers. Think of artisan loaves baking to perfection on the oven floor, and perfect wood-fired pizza.

Being hot and perfectly flat, the floor gives a great searing surface too. Once meat is seared it releases easily and can be served or moved to another vessel to finish cooking. Just pull the fire or a few coals over the cooking spot to burn off any residue. I generally heat an iron skillet or fajita pan for searing meat in order to collect any juices. These also make great serving platters—just allow for more carry-over cooking because cast iron holds heat efficiently. But, don’t forget the oven floor as a potential cooking surface, and not just for bread. It’s easy to clean and hard to beat in terms of cooking efficiency (not to mention historical accuracy).

Not everything can take the heat

Certain pans aren’t designed to withstand the high heat of a wood-fired oven— over 900°. It’s important to check the product description. Even then, bear in mind that materials rated for “high heat” (usually advertised as safe up to 700° or 800°) may not be able to handle sustained exposure to those temperatures. A pan designed for stove top conductive heat might be damaged in the surround heat of a wood-fired oven, especially if the pan has silicon knobs or handles.

An expensive Dutch oven from Le Creuset comes with cautionary remarks: “composite knobs heat resistant up to 500 degrees” and “exterior enamel resists chipping and cracking.” I save my Le Creuset cookware for down cycle cooking, re-heating, and serving. Being slid in and out of the oven still means the bottom gets scuffed. I’m ok with that, but I want the beautiful enameled sides to keep their bright flame colors.

the composite handle on this lid couldn’t stand up to sustained heat

If you want your Le Creuset to stay pristine, set it in front of the oven to warm and then use it for serving, but keep it well away from an open flame. Even porcelain pans marketed for wood-burning ovens are going to show wear and tear. Anything that has a glazed or enameled exterior is subject to scratching and chipping.

Hotel pans — best pans for value and versatility

In wood-fired cooking, pans are often pushed, pulled and knocked against other pans and tools. I do a lot of cooking with hotel pans that can take the heat and rougher handling. Hotel pans are light weight, sturdy, and durable. They resist warping and dinging. I’ve found that they heat and cool quickly and are easy to clean.

Steam Table Pans are generally metal, although some sizes are available in plastic. Metal pans are made of a blend of steel, chrome, and nickel. Stainless Steel “18-8”, which means 18% chrome, 8% nickel, and 74% steel is considered the standard. Increased nickel in the pan could cause oxidation and rust.

A full size pan is 203⁄4“x123⁄4” and come in depths ranging from 1” to 6”, also often referred to as “shallow”, “medium” and “deep.” The size of the pan is usual stated including the flanges – the rims around all four sizes that allow the pan to “hang” in the steam table bay or slide into a pan rack. The inside dimensions are generally an inch smaller in each direction. These pans are often described as 20″x12″ which is a hair larger than the basin dimensions, and a shade smaller than the full flange-included dimensions – but close enough to describe the pan.

Fractional pans come in sizes that equal 1/2, 1/4, 1/3, 2/3, 1/6, and 1/9. See Pan Shapes and Sizes section below for more information about these shapes. Each of these pan shapes comes in depths of 1″ to 6.”

With hotel pans, all your purchasing cash goes toward function. These are easy to clean, easy to store, and probably the single best pans for wood-fired oven owners to purchase. In a casual environment you can serve right out of them, or transfer food to serving platters.

Where to buy the best pans

A good place to start is a food pan buying guide. The buying guide pictures a variety of hotel pans, showing length, width, depth, capacity, along with lids. The guide lists the benefits of standard 22 gauge stainless steel pans and the benefits of heavier gauge pans. It explains “gastronorm sizing” which might appear on European cookware and how GN compares with American pan sizes (just about interchangeable).

Major restaurant supplies sell hotel pans: Webstaurant, Ace Mart, etc. Amazon sells a wide variety of sizes and shapes. I have stacks of hotel pans collected over the past six years. In addition to basic sheet pans (in full and partial sizes) my collection is mostly half size pans in various depths, with some third size pans. Brands like Update International and Winco are both featured on Amazon and are inexpensive. These are great for cooking in a wood-fired oven and at around $10 a pan, you’re not worried about pushing them into the fire. Most of my half size pans are these less expensive versions.

We encourage new oven owners to start with an inventory of these, the best pans for learning how to manage heat zones. As appealing as the beautiful glazed and enameled pans are (and they’re often advertised for wood-burning ovens) they are heavier, more fragile and better suited for serving. It’s great to have some, but start out with a set of half sized hotel pans in 2″ and 4″ depths, along with a few third pans in the same depths and a few lids for each.

My absolute favorite

Vollrath is one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of stainless steel smallware and makes quality hotel pans, that are highly rated for workmanship and appearance. Vollrath’s Wear-Ever roasting/baking pans are a bit more expensive, but worth the investment. These heavy duty pans are sized perfectly for a 40″ or 50″ internal diameter oven. They are quick conductors that are ideal for roasting veggies and meats. Depending on size, the Wear-Ever pans range from $30-$100. These are worth the splurge to augment a collection of hotel pans.

My go-to pan is more than 10 years old and gets used constantly. A Vollrath 68257 Wear-Ever Economy Aluminum 7.5 Quart Baking / Roast Pan, it is light enough to lift at the end of a paddle or peel and has convenient handles that lay flat and don’t interfere with stacking. The handles are easy to catch with a bubble popper and helpful for carrying a heavy roast inside.

Like the Velveteen Rabbit, this old Vollrath Wear-Ever has some scars to evidence its beloved status. If you follow our blogs, you’ll spot it in many of our photos. I love the size and shape of this pan. It is slightly longer than the half size hotel pans, but not as long as a full size pan.

I’ll frequently have two half sized pans and this one in the oven at the same time. This is one of the best pans for roasting big batches of potatoes or mushrooms, anything that needs space to roast without steaming. It can handle large batches, making it ideal for entertaining. Also, the dimensions differ from the standard hotel pan sizes that dominate my collection, so I can stack this atop a half size pan (or vise versa) without smashing anything while I reposition food or flame.

The next pan I want to try is the deeper 11.13 Quart version which has the same length and width but is 4″ deep. Based on my feelings for the 7.5 quart pan, this is already in my Amazon wishlist. It should be ideal for holding large roasts or a Thanksgiving turkey, things that stretch my current favorite to capacity. When smoking a brisket, the extra depth would come in handy. Depending on the roast size brisket could be a good place to use a 4″ deep full-sized hotel pan.

Unique features

Good steam/hotel pans are designed to stack without sticking together. The edges are slightly tapered, some with lugs (ridges) that enable the pans to stack and come apart easily. I have a stack of half size pans that I use for food prep, storage, and cooking. The stacked pans take up little room and come apart easily without a tug-of-war.

The pan rims are re-inforced to withstand being lifted (in and out of steam table compartments) or pulled and pushed by a bubble popper in a wood-fired oven. Reinforced rims make pans easy to grab with a folded towel or insulated glove. The rims have pourable corners designed for cleanly pouring out the flavored juices, fats, and residual marinades that collect in cooking.

The standard 22 gauge pan (stainless steel, chrome, and nickel) is light enough to flip and toss food to distribute oil and spices or “stir” food midway through cooking. Many years ago at a wood-fired chicken wing throw down charity event here in Austin, I loved watching the chefs cook hundreds of chicken wings in six inch half pans. They put on a show, flipping the wings in the air to coat them with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper; no stirring, no contaminated utensils, just an effortless toss every once in a while to ensure all the wings cooked evenly. When the wings were roasted to perfection, they poured them onto a serving platter, or tossed them one last time with a sweet and spicy sauce. Delicious!

Best pans multi-task

The food pan buying guide gives you an idea of the shapes, sizes, lids that can work freezer to oven— good for frozen storage, refrigerator storage, and cooking. The standard pan (22 gauge) is thin enough to heat up quickly and then to cool down quickly, unlike cast iron which retains high heat. To me, this is like cooking on a gas stove top vs. an electric one. If you move these pans to a cooler cooking zone, they cool down. Move them toward the fire and they respond quickly.

Because some vegetables take longer to cook than others, I often cook them in separate pans before combining them in a vegetable medley. I reheat vegetables like mashed potatoes by rigging up a double boiler with two different depth stacking hotel pans.

When we do a mobile pizza oven party, the small 4-6″ hotel pans with lids stack efficiently in coolers. Once at the party site we can set up an assembly line, take lids off of containers with pizza toppings, cheeses, and sauces ready to go. It’s easy to turn out a variety of pizzas quickly if the ingredients are prepped and easy to access.

my favorite pan and a new best friend

Keepers

I don’t throw out the old pans. There are uses for ones past their shiny prime: for lids, for smoking, for platforms, for holding coals, for tool storage. I have warped a pan or two to the point that they wouldn’t provide good conduction or nest neatly anymore but that is pretty rare. Because wood-fired ovens deliver efficient cooking heat via convection and radiant heat, even a warped pan works! As evidenced by the signs of use on my durable 7.5 quart pan, the best pans stand up to years of high heat, frequent use, and dishwashing.

]]>Cook Without a Recipe in Your Wood-burning Ovenhttp://texasovenco.com/cook-without-a-recipe/
Thu, 20 Jul 2017 14:28:09 +0000http://texasovenco.com/?p=3582I field all kinds of questions from people considering a wood-burning oven. Many of these have shown up in previous blogs. Several common questions fall into a single category: learning to cook in a wood-fired oven. The good news is that cooking in a wood-fired oven is easier than you’d expect...

]]>I field all kinds of questions from people considering a wood-burning oven. Many of these have shown up in previous blogs. Several common questions fall into a single category: learning to cook in a wood-fired oven. The good news is that cooking in a wood-fired oven is easier than you’d expect. If you are already confident in your ability to cook without a recipe, you’re set. If you’re more likely to stick closely to the specifics of each recipe, stay tuned. Some of the techniques that give the confidence to cook without a recipe transfer over to cooking in a wood-burning oven.

Learning to cook without a recipe

It turns out this is a popular topic, not just for wood-fired enthusiasts. Bon Appétit Magazine‘s website has an entire section with dishes to cook without a recipe. There are endless articles on intuitive cooking, cooking without a book, mastering the basics too cook anything, etc. Daniel Duane’s article on the Food and Wine website chronicles one man’s conversion form recipe obsession to a new goal: learn to cook without a recipe.

Things to keep in mind and on hand

Being confident in your ability to cook without a recipe or in a wood-fired oven mostly depends on paying attention, being respectful of a few basics, and trusting yourself. Here are a few basics to keep in mind:

Pay attention to how the food looks, feels, and smells. Think about the size and shape of what you’re cooking, and the minimum temperature you need to hit for food safety. Then, trust yourself to recognize when food is done. We love our First-fire service because it’s a great chance to see Dave in action managing the fire and heat zones, making an array of foods. It’s fun to see his relaxed approach to making delicious food without stressing over a recipe.

What it looks like in action

Here’s an easy example. This recipe for roasted cauliflower with cumin and cilantro from Food52 starts by having you preheat your oven to 425°. This makes sense because cruciferous veggies like cauliflower get a flavor upgrade when roasted at high heat. That makes this a great dish to cook without a recipe in your wood-burning oven. If you have a fire going in your oven, there will be a heat zone around that 425° mark. With most things, cooking at a slightly higher or lower temperature won’t make a huge difference. Just be prepared to stir the food in your pan, and rotate or reposition the pan depending on the intensity of the fire.

To create a dish inspired by the Food52 cauliflower, just toss the cauliflower florets in a drizzle of olive oil with plenty of salt and a bit of cumin. Slide your pan in to a fairly hot roasting zone near and open fire, and use tongs or bubble popper to stir the cauliflower occasionally. Check it periodically when it starts looking golden brown. If the outside looks great but the inside needs more time, move the pan to a cooler zone (like near the throat of the oven) to let it continue cooking without picking up any more color. If the inside is great but you want a little bit more color or a touch of char, push the pan toward the fire and stand by.

Cooking efficiency

In a wood-burning oven you not only have multiple heating zones, you also have incredible cooking efficiency. Wood-burning ovens cook food using convection, conduction and radiant heat transfer. That means most food will cook more quickly. Even if you’re following a recipe, pay attention to how the food looks (and check internal temperatures of meats) because it is likely to cook quickly.

Easy example: Alton Brown’s iconic baked potatoes

Normally, I bake potatoes on the down-cycle of my wood-burning oven. The low heat works beautifully to create creamy soft interiors with zero monitoring. On the other hand, it’s pretty hard to beat Alton Brown’s famous baked potatoes. Their crisp, salty skins encasing a buttery interior would make anyone a believer.

Before I had a wood-burning oven, we made these in our conventional oven fairly regularly. This is a great recipe to turn into a non-recipe because their success doesn’t rely on finicky chemical reactions triggered at specific temperatures.

AB oils the skins of the potatoes and salts them. This is brilliant on multiple levels. It gets salt on the potatoes early in the cooking process (always a good thing with starches). On top of that, it creates a crisp exterior texture. Finally, tossing the oiled potatoes in salt creates rough little abrasions on the surface that maximize surface area, which just means you get the best possible crispiness. The folks at Cook’s Illustrated demonstrated how effective this “roughening” of the surface area is in their review which we borrowed for our blog on roasting potatoes.

To recreate AB’s iconic potatoes in your wood-burning oven, don’t worry too much about quantities, but copy the oil + salt technique. After that, you just need the potato to cook all the way through. One way to approach this is to cook them on a Tuscan grill with a live fire, rotating the potato position and keeping the grill in a low to medium cooking zone. Another approach would be to initially wrap the potatoes, cook them in a cooler zone and unwrap them and move them into a higher heat zone just long enough to crisp the skins.

The approach I used was to close the oven door to snuff out the fire and let the potatoes cook in a moderately low temperature oven. When the interiors felt soft when i poked them with a fork, I left the door off, let the fire rekindle and the salty exteriors quickly crisped.

Regardless of the approach you pick, all you really need to do is keep the temperature low part of the time and high part of the time, regardless of which comes first these crisp exteriors and creamy interiors are fantastic. No wonder there are nearly 4 million Google results for AB’s potatoes!

Confidence to cook without a recipe

When people ask for a cookbook recommendation for using a wood-burning oven, we usually recommend one (see our blog on this topic) but beyond learning the heat zones in your oven, the best way to expand what you cook in your wood-fired oven is to read a book like How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Pam Anderson. Years ago a friend of mine recommended this. He had set a goal of learning how to cook without a recipe and found Anderson’s approach helpful. Her chapters on weeknight stir-fries, meals built around sautéing, and dishes that start by searing meat all translate beautifully to cooking in a wood-burning oven.

]]>Roasting Brassicas for Crave-worthy Flavorhttp://texasovenco.com/roasting-brassicas/
Thu, 13 Jul 2017 17:15:05 +0000http://texasovenco.com/?p=3561Roasting brassicas is a hip food trend likely to last. High heat transforms these super healthy foods. These foods we “know we should eat more of” become foods we crave. Roasting brassicas also supports two current food trends: meatless main dishes and substituting vegetables for starche...

]]>Roasting brassicas is a hip food trend likely to last. High heat transforms these super healthy foods. These foods we “know we should eat more of” become foods we crave. Roasting brassicas also supports two current food trends: meatless main dishes and substituting vegetables for starches in traditional comfort-food cooking. Our blog on cauliflower gave the now-popular cauliflower “rice” a wood-fired upgrade. Even more versatile than cauliflower, cabbage deserves a renaissance.

What’s in a name

Why is traditional cabbage-based slaw called coleslaw? The word cole comes from an old English word that means stem or stalk. Cabbage and other members of the Brassica/Cruciferous/Cole family of vegetables grow on a stalk. Included in this category of vegetables are bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, kale, mustard greens, radishes, turnips, watercress, kohlrabi, and others. Admittedly, some of these vegetables have tiny stalks! However, plant biologists speculate the Brassicas trace their history back 4000 years to a wild cabbage growing in a field somewhere in China.

Nutritional winners

It’s hard to pinpoint where that original wild cabbage grew and how it developed into the many varieties of Brassicas we have today. However, early cookbooks and medical records, credit cabbage with healing properties. Greeks and the Romans are noted for using cabbage to relieve gout, to reduce headaches, to counteract mushroom poisoning, to forestall baldness, and to heal bruises.

Modern nutritional studies link Brassicas with stimulating immunity, reducing inflammation, balancing blood sugar, shrinking tumors, and reducing the risk of cancer. With all these benefits, why aren’t we eating more of these vegetables? Why do people avoid a vegetable as healthful as broccoli?

Downsides

The main reason for not eating more cruciferous vegetables is taste. For most people, especially children, taste is the key influence on food selection.

The importance of taste preference emerged as a particularly important theme, with participants suggesting that taste is a key behavior motivator. For example, responses to questions about healthy foods included I don’t eat them because they taste nasty.

Because of their sulfur-containing compounds Brassicas have the potential of tasting bitter to some folks, but not to everyone. People who detect bitterness are genetically equipped to taste it, while other people do not have this inherited taste gene. For individuals without the inherited gene, broccoli doesn’t taste the same way it tastes to people with the gene. Sounds confusing, but it does explain why some people have a strong dislike for some cruciferous veggies. From childhood they’ve shied away from eating cruciferous vegetables. The good news is that something that can be done about taste by roasting Brassicas.

People with thyroid malfunction are advised to cook cruciferous vegetables to inactivate chemicals that interfere with thyroid hormone production. Doctors and nutritionists agree that the benefits of eating broccoli and cabbage are too important to avoid them outright–just cook them, yet another argument for roasting brassicas.

Roasting Brassicas

That’s easy to do, especially in a wood-fired oven. Roasting improves the taste of most vegetables, whether you are roasingt them in a conventional oven, but especially if you are roasting brassicas in a wood-fired oven. The touch of wood-fired flavor along with char and hint of smokiness moves cabbage and other Brassicas to being favorites.

Brassicas really come into their own when they’re cooked on high heat especially in your oven. The natural sugars in them caramelize, negativing any overt bitterness.

Be sure to use enough fat in the roasting pan. The vegetables shouldn’t swim in oil, but they should be coated sufficiently.

Cut the vegetables to similar sizes so they roast equally.

Flip the roasting vegetables at least once during the cooking.

Roast at high heat (450 in conventional oven, 500-600 to wood-fired oven).

Don’t overcrowd the vegetables in the roasting pan.

Roasting brassicas plus more flavor

The most important flavor considerations other than roasting Brassicas in high heat are seasoning them with enough salt and fat. Salt counteracts bitterness and butter adds a moistness and its own unbeatable flavor. After roasting, the vegetables taste great on their own and can be a pallet for delicious sauces, herbs, spices, meats.

Dishes with roasted brassicas

When roasting brassicas, I keep coming back to roasted Brussels sprouts and cabbage. Brussels sprouts with dipping sauces make great appetizers, and turn haters into Brussels sprout converts excited about roasting brassicas.

Roasted cabbage with cheese, bacon or sausage is a delicious main dish or side. These two items always are always popular and surprise people who remember cabbage boiling away and filling the house with sulfurous odors. My favorite roasted cabbage these days is topped with crispy brisket bits. I’ll roast cabbage in either rings or wedges topped with salt, pepper, and finely chopped brisket. This is a great use for the fatty parts of the brisket that don’t work as well sliced. Chopped fine, these give a great flavor burst, the fat replaces butter or oil for the cabbage, and the high heat crisps these up into a bacon-like texture.